New Microsoft Xbox With Built-In Natal Controller For Next Year

More Microsoft Natal news!

It sounds like the Microsoft Xbox 360 will be arriving with built-in Project Natal motion-sensing camera and voice-recognition technology from 2010 – Could this be a reply to Sony’s Motion Contol release?

Microsoft CEO, Steve Ballmer was speaking to The Executive’s Club Of Chicago and stated that the new Xbox 360 hardware would provide a “natural interface” and described Natal technology as “really, really close” to being finished and ready for production.

Ballmer’s comments about a new version of the Xbox 360 including Project Natal technology apparently caught the rest of Microsoft by surprise, with other executives scrambling to explain what was going on.

Aaron Greenberg, Microsoft Director, Xbox 360 Product Management And Xbox Live, admitted to Kotaku: “we have looked at [producing an Xbox 360 with built-in Natal technology] but we haven’t announced any details for something like that.”

Greenberg went on to stress that Ballmer certainly wasn’t talking about an entirely new generation Xbox 720:

“We are saying that the Natal will run on the Xbox 360, so there’s no new hardware to purchase. We’re barely halfway through this generation. We’re happy with the Xbox 360, so there are no changes from that standpoint.”